Back home...

Our unforgettable holiday in Norway is over now... :-( The only things that last are lots and lots of photo's, 7 CD's and a head full of memories. I imagined that it would be like this, but I could not imagine the impact this wonderful country would have on me. Now I understand why people from Nederland emigrate to Norway. Of course I have not experienced winter in Norway yet, but the experience of summer seems to wash away the thought of a horrible long and dark winter. You take that for granted! Before I get carried away completely, back to reality now. We had a very good holiday and have decided that we should return one day!

I had a good chance to practice my norwegian, which I did of course as much as possible ;-). In Oslo I had a very nice conversation with a woman sitting next to me on the terrace of Egon Restaurant. She complimented me with my ability to speak the language! Also, I have learned that the Norwegian police is your best friend. Just try to speak some norwegian, put on an helpless face and tell that you are from Nederland Haha. The policeman could even speak some Dutch words, because he had family in Nederland! Lucky me!

As we have made a lot of beautiful pictures, it is very hard to select a few for this blog. There are all so nice! Here are a couple, in an attempt to convince my Dutch friends to visit Norway one day!

Hilsen fra Norge!

Now we have arrived in Oslo and are nearing the end of our wonderful trip. We are very tired of climbing the Holmenkollen tower :-), but again, it was an exciting day in Norway, as were all the past 11 days. Unfortunately only one day is left. Tomorrow we will try to check out Oslo for the second time. Last year there was a lot of rain, so we didn't see much more than the Akershuset. Now we plan to see more!

Pictures and more stories later....

Mouse

My life is one big chain of stupidities, every day is a new journey, you never know what's going to happen :-)

Maybe is was the lack of sleep, I don't know. This morning I sat in my office when suddenly I heard the squeaking of a mouse! Uh oh... I know we have mice at the office, that's one of the 'charms' of working in a house in the woods. Rentokil has placed mouse traps just recently and now we seem to have a lot of flies seeming to come from nowhere, strange.... But anyway, I was sure that I had heard the squeaking and I looked cautiously under my desk, behind the closet, behind the radiator. O dear, the mice had somehow escaped! But what a relief, there was not a mouse to be seen; it must have been a bird outside my window.

This afternoon I heard the same sound again and then finally I realised that the sound came from a pocket calculator on my desk. Some gadget I once received from a recruitment agency. On the hour it goes 'beep', but now that the batteries are low the sound resembles the sound of a mouse! HA HA What a fool I am!

Luckily nobody saw me this morning while 'mouse hunting'. Unfortunately it's not always avoidable to be alone in such awkward situations. Like this morning when I was cleaning my badge under the tap when a colleague entered the toilets. I had to confess that I dropped my badge into the toilet...

Siste leksen norsk...

I dag har jeg hatt siste privatleksen norsk. Nå må jeg øve meg selv til nytt kurs begynner igjen i høst. Jeg må lese mye, og høre på norsk radio og TV. Siden starten av norskkurs i fjor har jeg lært så mye! Av og til gjør jeg feil, men det er ikke så farlig. Jeg håper at Mandylou vil hjelpe meg med språk og skrift :-)

Help each other!

Yesterday I experienced again that the world will be better place when we all should help each other, instead of practising hate and violence.

In the morning I was supposed to pick up my mom from the train. As usual I was late and I drove like crazy to the station, where I learned that her train was delayed. So I had plenty of time to go to the toilet. These stupid toilets only accept € 0,50 and don't give any change, so I had to buy a bottle of water first to have € 0,50 in coins. No luck unfortunately after buying the bottle, and the girl behind the counter wasn't willing to change one Euro. Grrrr.... Up to the snackbar. There, I had more luck. On to the toilets, put in the coin and the gates open. When I came out again, I realised that I was carrying 'something' when I got in, which I didn't have when I got out again. The bottle of water! Left inside the ladies toilet! Oeps! (it was over 30°C, so I definitely needed the bottle). Since the toilet lady was nowhere in sight and I didn't want to put another coin in the machine to open up the gates for me again, I asked a man who just went in. He couldn't find the lady either, and after a while another young man tried to help me to look for the lady. When the lady didn't show up, I asked both men if they could look in the 3rd or 4th ladies toilet for a bottle of water. They went together, and found the bottle for me! Nice people truly do exist!

The second story happened last night. They predicted very bad weather with heavy thunderstorms. In the south already one lady died because she was struck by lightning. They had given out a weather alarm. At one time I heard children crying and looked out of the window on the first floor. I saw a family (man, woman, girl and boy) huddled together near the entrance of the health center at the opposite of our house. The boy was hysterical because of the heavy lightning all around. It was obvious they were surprised by the weather at the end of the 'Avondvierdaagse', the children were wearing all kinds of chains with sweets around their neck, there were some stuffed animals or flowers on their bikes. I felt very sorry for them. Right after I had recounted what I just had seen, the mother and the girl came running to my house and rang the bell. I hurried to open the door and let the whole family in. They were soaking wet and the boy was very frightened. They apologized for having turned to me, but they didn't know where to go and they couldn't reach their house on bike. I said I didn't mind at all, that I would help them and urged them in the living room. Finally they felt comfortable to go in. I could see that these were very nice people, I liked them immediately. The children calmed down and were attracted to Radka, who was sitting peacefully on the couch after having had her evening meal. I offered to bring them home in my car but they wouldn't let me, so they phoned a neighbour who came to pick them up a little later. They kept apologizing for the fact that they were dirty with rain and mud and kept thanking me. I felt it was really a normal thing to do, because when I would be in such a situation I would also hope that there are nice people who will help me. Today, when they collected their bikes again in front of my house, they left a box of chocolates to thank me.

A day to remember!

Radka goes shopping

Radka bought herself a new toilet and a new food bowl this afternoon. I must say that she did well! She picked the right colour for the toilet (blue!) and the food bowl is really very chic! She has a fine taste. The reason why she bought this new stuff, is that as from Friday she will have our neighbour to visit her every day, to feed her and to clean her toilet, and a lady needs nice things around her when there's male visit, isn't that true?!

Radka is inspecting her new toilet... Impossible to knock over!

Happy days, sad days....

Why is it that there's always such a big difference in your days? Yesterday was great! Today was awful... :-(

Here's what happened yesterday. I had my first private lessons in Norwegian in the morning from 10:00 until 12:00. How stupid, I forgot that there is much more traffic than in the evening. At the end of our industrial area I ended up in a line which would take me at least 20 minutes before I reached the freeway. Uh oh... make a quick U-turn, go the other way again, that might be better. But now I am in a real hurry, it is already after 09:30! On the freeway I seem to be the only person who is in a great hurry. I get so agitated when suddenly 7 cars in a row with bicycles at the back (obviously people going on a tour alltogether because of the nice weather) turn onto my road! They seem to crawl their way on the road, how annoying, get out of my way! The absolute limit has yet to come: a lady in the car in front of me applying her make-up in the inside mirror! Grrrr.. She's looking up and down the passenger seat, her car going from one side to the other side of the lane, and it is the left lane! The lane where I am because of my hurry. At one point when she leaves a big gap betweer her car and the car in front of her, I have enough. I slam my foot on the accelerator and overhaul her from the right, resuming my position in the left lane. As a reaction she signals with her lights. It's a miracle that she could find the buttons of her lights, while applying the mascara and the lipstick!

Anyway, I arrive at Nina's classroom at 10:05, already having rehearsed in my head the sentence I should say to her: "Unnskyld at jeg er for seint, men det var veldig travelt på veien". Until now the day maybe doesn't sound great, but when I am in a relaxed state again, Nina and I (well, mostly Nina of course ;-)) talk Norwegian for nearly 2 hours! That was so great! These are 'my' hours, I may decide what we are going to do. I tell Nina that I want to learn to SPEAK, and to understand.

After the lessons I end up in a lunchroom in Bunnik. I sit in the sun and order a fresh orange juice and a 'broodje gezond' (healthy sandwich). In the afternoon we had an outdoor activity, organised by our personnel community. That was also in Bunnik, so I could stay in the neighbourhood of Werkhoven. An urgent message from one of the department directors on my mobile (of which the battery is nearly empty and I have no possibility to reload it...and the battery of my private mobile is also low...) calls me to Wageningen. I don't care much for outdoor activities with my colleagues anyway.... At the end of the day I join them for a BBQ, and this was quite nice! (after I found the group, which wasn't so easy, I'm not good in finding entrances haha) Judging from their stories of the afternoon's acitivities I consider myself lucky to be called to Wageningen to see to urgent matters. One colleague was still sneezing today because of the fact that he had to act like a guiney pig on all four, with his nose in the grass ;-)

In the evening I had a lovely chat with my dear friend Mandylou (thanks for that!).

Today I try to hold on to the sweet memories of the day before, but it is hard. There's a lot of stress and I am accused of something I cannot help. We have a huge problem and somebody manages to make it my problem. Grrrr... I feel very frustrated and emotional, but showing my emotions is not very helpful. So I hold on to the end of the day, when I finally succeed in catching my boss before he leaves the office. Half of the problem is now solved, the other half unfortunately remains unsolved until Wednesday...

In the end the good news is that I have 3 full days to recover again from today! :-)